What are the 10 most important books in running?

The Non-Runner's Book with such advice as "How to Avoid the Boston Marathon" and "Staying Out of Shape". Find out more at:

Amazon.com: The Non-Runner's Book: 9780020409205: Vic Ziegel, Lewis Grossberger: Books

The 4 minute mile

pain

the olympian

Dude, what do you do for your brain? Reading is the best. Plus think about how many historically significant runners live on in those books? You can connect with the legends of our sport! I love books!

p.s. My copy of Running with the Buffaloesis signed by Goucher AND Chris Lear. I also have a copy of Bertrand Russell's Problems of Philosophy signed by Centrowitz. I just thought that would be funny. He was cool about it.

I liked Adharanand Finn's trilogy (Running with the Kenyans/The Way of the Runner/Rise of the Ultra Runners) and Michael Crawley's Out of Thin Air which gave an anthropological coverage of different running cultures.

For biographies, Today We Die a Little about Zatopek and Barefoot Runner on Bikila weaved running and politics with the lives of these legends. Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running is something I re-read every so often.

For training books, aside from those already mentioned, I started out with Julian Goater's The Art of Running Faster.

Read pretty much all of them.

My favorite and most recommended are:

Frank Shorter - My Marathon (my favorite one)

Herb Elliot - Golden mile (super interesting)

Ron Clarke - The Unforgiving Minute (guy was revolutionary)

Deena Kastor - Let Your Mind Run (just a great story)

Alberto Salazar - 14 minutes (hate the guy all you want, still a fascinating book)

You need a book to learn how to run?

Some people read for entertainment and some people read for inspiration too.

No Bugles, No Drums

the men or Oregon

faster 5k

Thanks, Derderian, for confirming the information of your works. The 1993 edition published by Human Kinetics is in my collection.

Thanks, Turtle Tom, for helping to refine the Osler listings in my athletics bibliography. The below information from various sources seems to be correct. Serious Runner's Handbook is the only one I own or have touched. It is worthy of inclusion on such list discussed in this thread.

Osler, Tom. The Conditioning of Distance Runners. Long Distance Log, 1967.
Osler, Tom. Serious Runner's Handbook. World Publications, 1978.
Osler, Tom, and Edward Dodd. Guide to Long Distance Running. South Jersey Track Club, 1965.
Osler, Tom, and Edward Dodd. Ultramarathoning: The Next Challenge. World Publications, 1979.

I like the cut of your mid distance jib.

The Olympian is glorious. I actually had correspondence with Granville during grad school about the book.

I’ve never read the 4 Minute Mile, but Pain, the The Olympian, and Slinger Sanchez (Running Gun) were foisted upon my son at an early age.

Barefoot Runner- Paul Rambali

Tales of the Times- Bob Hodge

Today we die a little (Zatopek)

Virgin Territory

The Greatest (Haile G)

Best Efforts

My life on the run- Yasso

Running for my life

The sports Gene

The four Minute mile

These are just some of my favorites from my bookshelf. The John Parker books are great fiction for runners. I like reading about runners, not so much about training methods I guess. Scott Jurek's books are pretty good as well for getting a sense of what ultra running is about.

For those that have been in a chase pack, or even further behind, Wannabe Distance God by Timothy Tays is a great read.

I always bring up The Golden Mile in threads of this sort. It was my Bible for a long time.

Ultramarathon man by Dean Karnazes

I don't care what you think, Once a Runner brings up the feels. It is like the Catcher in the Rye or Tropic of Cancer of distance running.

Let's also call out The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner in addition to the other excellent works mentioned here.

Training Distance Runners

the Jim Ryun Story

The Milers

Kenny Moore’s Best Efforts

Run To The Top

the four minute mile

no bugles no drums

kiwis can fly

john McDonnell: the most successful coach in NCAA history

steve Ovett: an autobiography

vids:

the supermilers

seb coe: born to run

If we're going to bring up Salazar, then another book to mention is John Brant's Duel in the Sun. Stronger writing than Once a Runner and more informative about running boom-era marathoning than Marathon Man.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes or Born to Run by Chris McDougall yet.

Just kidding! More seriously, Ron Hill's autobiography Nearly to the Top is a fascinating insight into how weird his training was (e.g. three miles three times a day with a boozy lunch...).

Feet in the Clouds by Richard Askwith is worth reading if you are interested in British fell running.